Sounds of Bufo boreas halophilus - California Toad

(=Anaxyrus boreas halophilus - Southern California Toad)

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A congregation of breeding adults
© Joyce Gross

More pictures and information about the California Toad.

The call of the California Toad is a high -pitched plinking sound, like the peeping of a chick. A group of males calling has been compared to the sound of a distant flock of geese. Calls are given at night and during the day. Some herpetologists consider this sound a release call or encounter call, which is produced when males come into close contact, rather than an advertisement call, which is produced by a solo male in order to attract a female.

The following recordings were made at night at a small artificial desert pond in San Diego County. Several male toads were calling occasionally while floating on the water hidden in reeds or only partially. Also calling from the pond, but not heard here, were California Treefrogs and Red-spotted Toads.

This is a 4 second recording of a single short call.

This is a 3 second recording of a single short call.

This is an 8 second recording of a short series of calls produced by what appears to be two male toads.

This is a 14 second recording of a short series of calls produced by what appears to be two male toads.

This is a 6 second recording of a short series of agitated calls of one toad.

Waveform and Sonogram

This is a recording of one repetition of the call of a California Toad recorded at night in San Diego County. The image on the right is a visual representation of this call. Click on it to see a larger image. Click here for information about how to read the waveform and sonogram images.

Release Calls

A release call is produced by a male toad or an unreceptive female toad when a male toad or other animal gets on its back and grabs its sides in the position used for mating or amplexus. It's a toad's way of saying "Get off my back! Let go!"

This is a 9 second recording of the release calls produced by a toad of undetermined gender as it was grasped across the back.

You can listen to more recordings of California Toads on this cd:

Carlos Davidson - Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

and on the cd that comes with this book:

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson - The Frogs and Toads of North America - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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